Miloslav Bulva

Miloslav Bulva was born in 1932, in Litomyšl, in a family of private farmers. After the war he joined the Boy Scouts. Shortly before the events of February 1948, together with his classmates from grammar school in Litomyšl, they boycotted the general strike in support of the communist ministers. He became a member of a resistance group that printed and spread anti-communist leaflets. Due to a long illness, however, he didn’t get much more involved in the activities of the group and thus he was “only” sentenced to a year in prison in a trial with the group that followed its disclosure to the state security in the summer of 1949. Even before the trial itself, Miloslav Bulva spent a month in custody in Pardubice and a month in Chrudim. The trial with the so-called “ATA group” was held in October 1950 in Smetana’s house in Litomyšl. This trumped-up show trial called “Stříteský and associates” bundled together three independent anti-communist initiatives and designated the rector of the Piarist College Stříteský as their spiritual leader. Miloslav Bulva served his term in a juvenile correctional facility in Zámrsk. After his release, he wasn’t allowed to complete his studies and thus he had to work in a sawmill. Later on, when he managed to get a driver’s license in spite of considerable difficulties, he worked as a truck driver.

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